Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks is the most influential African American woman of all time. She did a lot for our country as an African-American woman in the civil rights movement.
She was born in Tuskegee, Alabama on February 4, 1913. She grew up on a farm in Pine Level, Alabama. She lived with her Mother, Grandmother, and brother Sylvester. Her parents got divorced when she was quite young. Parks went to a rural school until the age of eleven. Then she enrolled at the Industrial School for Girls in Montgomery, where she took academic and vocational courses. She soon went on to a laboratory school, the Alabama State Teachers College for Negroes. She wanted a college education but was forced to drop out to care for her grandmother, and later for her mother, after they became ill.
In 1932 Rosa got married to Raymond Parks. He was a barber and part of the NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. As the years went on Rosa had many jobs. In 1943 Parks became a member NAACP. She was elected to be a secretary. She had her job until 1957.
In Montgomery, the first four rows of bus seats were reserved for white people. Buses had "colored" sections for African-Americans. They made up more than half of the busses riders. These sections were not equal they had a movable sign for where the sections of where certain people could sit. People of color could sit in the middle rows, until the white section was full. Then they had to move to seats in the back, stand, or, if there was no room, they had to evacuate the bus. African Americans were not allowed to sit across the aisle from the white people. The driver also could move the "colored" section sign or remove it all together. If white people were already sitting in the front, black people could board to pay the fare, but then had to leave and reenter through the back door. There were times when the bus departed before the black customers who had paid made it to the back entrance. Bus drivers had the power to assign seats. They tried as hard as possible to segregate the buses sections by race.
On a chilly December day Rosa boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus, paid her fare, and sat in the first seat of the, “colored section”. All the seats on the bus were filled up. As the bus reached the 3rd stop several white people entered the bus. The driver immediately demanded that Parks and the 3 other African-Americans stand up and give their seats to the white passengers. When Rosa didn’t get up the driver asked if she was going to stand up, and she said, 'No, I'm not.' And he said, “Well, if you don't stand up, I'm going to have to call the police and have you arrested.” She said, “You may do that.". And she was arrested.
On the day of Rosa Parks’ trial the Women's Political Council handed out 35,000 leaflets that said, "We are...asking every Negro to stay off the buses Monday in protest of the arrest and trial ... You can afford to stay out of school for one day. If you work, take a cab, or walk. But please, children and grown-ups, don't ride the bus at all on Monday. Please stay off the buses Monday." It rained that day. But the African American people stayed strong. The boycott lasted for 381 days. Dozens of public buses were almost empty. The boycott financially challenged, and severely damaging the bus transit company. It went on until the law requiring segregation on public buses was lifted. The black community's bus boycott marked one of the largest and most successful mass movements against racial segregation.
I think Rosa Parks played a humongous part in the Civil Rights Movement. She has gone through hard times. How would you like it if you couldn’t do something based on how you looked or how you acted? Everyone is a person and they should have the same rights as everyone else. Rosa stood up for what she believed in and fought injustice, even if it was a little thing, such as not giving up her seat on the bus. That little thing got her recognized and made a statement to the nation. It might have gotten her arrested but it sure paid off in the long run. She earned lots of awards and on the day of her death every flag is to be flown at half staff as a sign of respect. Overall, Rosa Parks is an inspiration!
